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Sunday, September 20, 2015

Welcome to my stop in the Stuck in a Good Book Giveaway Hop! A quick thank you to Stuck in Books & I Am A Reader for hosting this giveaway hop! And a big thank you to Melissa Parkin for sponsoring this stop of the hop with her newest book!

Blurb:The last thing sixteen-year-old Cassie Foster needs is trouble, but that doesn’t stop him from finding her.

Nine months after the tragic accident that killed her mother and sister, this high school junior just wants a fresh start. Settling down in the quiet town of New Haven, Maine, she’s found peace at last…until the new resident bad boy, Jackson Matthews, comes into the picture. Arrogant, sarcastic, and devastatingly sexy, he’s the very last thing Cassie wants to entertain. Romance was never part of the plan. But when terrifying circumstances drive these two together, she finds herself further in over her head than thought possible. As local girls begin disappearing, Cassie can’t help but wonder if it’s just a coincidence that everything started when this blue-eyed Casanova strolled into town. Will falling into Jackson’s arms mean she’ll be falling victim to a real lady-killer…or worse?

The answer will open the door to a world she never thought possible.

About the Author:

Melissa Parkin is a Chicagoland native who feels weird referring to herself in the third person. When she's not binge reading, taking photographs, breaking the first rule of Fight Club, or playing music too loud, she's writing young adult paranormal romances.

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Solace Goodeve, one of Mother Nature’s favorite Fae Warriors, is
assigned to Earth to help save the planet. Reptile invaders, disguising
themselves as humans, are waging a takeover—and Mother is mad enough to eat
asteroids. Solace is ready to prove herself as a warrior, but having a human
for a partner is not in her battle plan—even if the man is rugged, ripped, and
ready for action.

Army Ranger, Tanner Jackson, has seen his share of
black op missions. The last one took a toll on both body and soul. Tanner isn’t
looking for love, even though his new partner is six-foot-tall and drop dead
gorgeous. However, after Solace shows him a new meaning to working undercover,
he may have to reconsider that possibility.

As the Reps plan to sabotage NOAA, Tanner and
Solace must learn to trust one another. But as they're trying to save the
world, Solace and Tanner might just lose their hearts—and that takes the most
courage of all.

Creating
Characters:

Sometimes I think the
stories we write are already out there somewhere in the multiverse, and we are
just fortunate enough to tap into them. That’s why some characters seem to have
such a mind of their own. I try to follow my original plan for them as far as
height, weight, hair and eye color, and personal history, but as the story
progresses these qualities are open to change. It’s not my idea, it’s theirs.

How they respond to
situations, other characters, the adventure, and even dialogue, shapes them,
surprises me, and hopefully draws in and entertains the reader. This applies to
villains as well as the hero and heroine. And these changes rarely make them
more perfect, but just the opposite. The changes are often imperfections making
them more relatable, more endearing, or perhaps more hated.

In my story Solace: Fae Warriors book 1, I had
double the fun when creating the antagonist. He had two forms, human-like and
reptilian. And I had the added challenge of making him believable and relatable
in his Rep form. Hey lizards have feelings too. Since this book is
contemporary, and my prior six books are historicals, I had to apply a
different mindset for myself as well as the characters. You’d think living in
the time period one was writing would make things easier. It didn’t seem to.

Then there is the fact that while the hero in Solace is a tasty bit of human man-candy, the heroine is Fae and
from another world. Her interpretation of life on this planet comes from her Earth
Indoctrination class 101. I guess my most important job is to help the characters
who people my books to become real enough for you to want to be them, have
lunch with them, or run in terror from them.

EXCERPT:

Angry voices filtered over to her. She couldn’t understand
what they were saying, but it sounded like they were arguing amongst
themselves. Snatching the bag from her head, she blinked and took stock of her
surroundings. Two Reps looked ready to go for one another’s throats. The third
sat in a nearby chair, holding his thigh, groaning in pain. Studying her
surroundings in more detail, she discovered they’d brought her to an abandoned
warehouse. An image of “Mr. White” flashed through her mind. What was it with
these guys and warehouses? At least this one appeared cleaner, and other than a
few small odds and ends, nearly empty—except for the

huge steel cage they’d locked her in.

AUTHOR Bio and
Links:

Gini Rifkin writes
adventurous romance, past, present, and into the future. Her current book Solace,
number seven for The Wild Rose Press, is a sexy sci/fi/fantasy romance. When
not reading or writing, she has the privilege of caring for a menagerie of
abandoned animals including ducks, geese, rabbits, goats, donkeys, and cats.
She was born and raised in Illinois, became a registered nurse by age 19, and
when struck by wanderlust, moved to Colorado where she met her husband Gary.
They shared the journey for 30 years, spending vacations doing Mountain Man
reenacting. Although Gary has passed on, a little bit of him lives on in every
hero she writes. Her writing keeps her hungry to keep learning new things, and
she considers family and friends her most treasured of gifts.

Friday, September 11, 2015

Knight,
the sheriff of a local magical government known as "the Gambit," is
called to recover a mutilated body, tainted with magic and dumped at a popular
haunt. When the corpse is identified as a close associate of the Gambit, it
threatens the safety of the community he protects, and those he cares about
most. As the fragile peace amongst the city's magic-wielding factions
disintegrates, Knight must track down a cadre of murderers before his friends
are picked off, one by one- with each death used to strengthen the spells cast
against the Gambit.

EXCERPT:

“Tell
me honestly, what do you think we’re going to find?”

“Statistically,
the safe money would go on Castle getting involved with the wrong woman- one of
the two reasons people usually kill each other. The other’s ambition, but
there’s no percentage in killing Castle; if this is the opening for something
larger, I can't even imagine what the game is.”

“So
the all-points response is…”

“Precaution.
If we really thought the gambit was under assault, we’d have marshaled our
forces and stormed the cabin with every mage who takes our calls. But that also
means riding out here in a caravan of VW buses that reek of skunk weed- and
burning a lot of good will if it's a false alarm. So you coming out of the
car?”

She
hesitates for a moment, then gets out. A “V” of Canadian geese flies overhead.
“Too bad you suck at divination,” she says. “Maybe they’d be able to tell us if
we’re about to die.”

I
start toward the house, hating every crunch of gravel under my feet because
they make me louder, and make it harder to listen for something amiss. “I dated
an augur once; she was flighty.”

AUTHOR Bio and
Links:

Nicolas
Wilson is a published journalist, graphic novelist, and novelist. He lives in
the rainy wastes of Portland, Oregon with his wife, four cats and a dog.

Nic's
work spans a variety of genres, from political thriller to science fiction and urban
fantasy. He has several novels currently available, and many more due for
release in the next year. Nic's stories are characterized by his eye for the
absurd, the off-color, and the bombastic.

For
information on Nic's books, and behind-the-scenes looks at his writing, visit
nicolaswilson.com.

Nicolas
Wilson will be awarding a swag package with a pendant and bookmarks (US ONLY)
to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour, and a swag package
with a pendant and bookmarks (US ONLY) to a randomly drawn host.

Thursday, September 10, 2015

Ex-cop Jack Wylie is a born protector, tormented by the day he
misjudged a criminal and his life took a tragic turn. Now he's on a mission to
kidnap a woman to help her overcome a fear of being tied up.

He's been told by his psychologist brother to keep up the game
until the woman gives him the sign. But there has been a big mistake. Jack has
accidentally abducted the feisty and beautiful Molly Rhoades - a newly arrived
local TV reporter who has secrets of her own. And she doesn't know the sign.

After a dangerous and unlikely meeting, Jack and Molly find
themselves consumed by sexual tension, but things get even more complicated
when Molly finds out that Jack is engaged to the local Councilwoman Amanda
Everett, a ruthless career climber determined to succeed no matter what the
cost.

But why did Jack kidnap Molly in the first place? Who is pulling
the strings in this perverted puppet show? Jack vows to protect Molly until he
finds out the truth, but the layers of deception and vengeance run deeper than
he could have ever imagined.

EXCERPT:

She was ready for him when he came back.

After several frantic tries, she arranged the
comforter on the bed, hoping it looked like she was lying beneath it. Now, she
waited behind the door. The only weapons she had were her legs, but with five
years of kickboxing under her belt, she knew the vulnerable areas to target on
a man to overpower him. Groin. Throat. Nose. Finding those areas blindfolded
would be the real kicker.

She inhaled a slow breath. The key jingled in the
lock. She tensed, preparing her body to deliver swift, precise hits. Bending
one knee, she kept the other resting against the side of the door to feel it
open. Without her hands for balance, it’d be difficult to stay on her feet
after landing. If she didn’t connect with solid flesh, she’d fall. She tried
not to sweat the fact she’d never kicked a person before. He wasn’t a person —
he was a monster.

By slow degrees the door brushed against her foot
and she held a second, waiting for his first step into the room. Bounding to
the left, she kicked up and out, hoping to catch him offguard and bean him under
the nose, or at least the side of his face. Instead, her toes clattered against
something hard, and warm chunks spattered her throat. Her lunch? Determined to
do some damage, she leaped again and threw her entire body behind a kick in the
same vicinity as the last. This time she connected with flesh.

A calloused hand wrapped around her foot and she
tottered, one-legged, on the slippery floor. He released her before she toppled
over, only to grab her by the tank. A rip sounded and the fabric over her breasts
gave way.

He hauled her against his solid chest. “You’re
becoming a real pain in the ass, Laura.” He spoke the words inches from her
face, his breath hot on her lips. A hard hand clamped around her jaw, then
gentled, stroking up the side of her cheek.

He was going to kiss her.

“My name isn’t Laura!”

AUTHOR Bio and
Links:

Natalie S. Ellis worked behind the
scenes in TV news for sixteen years and will always miss the rush of a breaking
story. But the seduction of writing a fiery romance with twisty suspense is
even harder to resist, especially when she has a new curveball for the plot.
Natalie enjoys living in her hometown of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and attributes
her cheerful attitude to empty nesting, a supportive family, and way too many
lattés.

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Wedding planner Tyler Warren left heartbreak behind when she ran away
from her small Southern hometown and started a new life in a big city. Years
later, she wants to believe in the fairy-tale endings her job promotes, but the
clients she meets day after day seem to be more “Crazily Ever After” than
“Happily Ever After.”

Meanwhile,
her own attempts at romance play out as bizarre comedies rather than love
stories, and she’s starting to think Prince Charming either fell off his horse
or got eaten by a dragon. When unresolved issues from Tyler’s past complicate
things even further, she discovers she may yet have some things to figure out
before she can find her own happy ending.

This
delightful first book in the Tales Behind the Veils series chronicles Tyler’s
wacky misadventures, both personal and professional. Whether she’s getting
insane requests from brides or outlandish requests on dates, you’re sure to be
charmed and entertained by the Diary of a Single Wedding Planner.

EXCERPT:

I laughed at Mel and cringed at the memory she
referred to. I was probably sixteen at the time, and my mother’s best friend
had insisted I go out with her nephew. Doris described Sammy as a “long, tall,
good-lookin’ drink of water.” She would drawl out long and tall into pretty
much two-syllable words and then rush through good-lookin’ drink of water like
she was running out of oxygen.

He was tall alright, but evidently Doris and I have
vastly differing opinions on what constitutes good-lookin’. Of course, it
didn’t help that he showed up barefoot to take me out to dinner. I opened the
door in my brand-new dress to greet a scrawny giant of a boy wearing a
rebel-flag tank top, a pair of cut-off denim shorts, and no shoes.

He smiled down at me, revealing a large gap of two
to three teeth missing on the bottom and a couple of top teeth ready to jump
ship at any moment.

I decided right then and there I’d need to see
someone up close and in person before I ever let anyone set me up on a date.

AUTHOR Bio and
Links:

Violet Howe enjoys writing romance with
humor. She lives in Florida with her husband, who is her knight in shining
armor, and their two handsome sons. They share their home with three adorable
but spoiled dogs. When she’s not writing, Violet is usually watching movies,
reading, or planning her next travel adventure. You can follow Violet’s
ramblings on her blog, The Goddess Howe.

Cursed since birth, hunted by gods, and desperate for love—Jade never
stood a chance.

Half-demon,
half-goddess, Jade’s fate makes her a pawn in an epic battle among the gods.
Hidden on Earth with her sisters, she successfully avoids the Oneiroi—the dream
gods—bent on her destruction until the prophecy, long dormant, awakens a dark
shadow within her.

Roen, a
reclusive Worr demon known for his battles against the Oneiroi, is called to
protect Jade. Together they must unlock their mysterious connection and find a
way to beat back destiny. Can she outsmart the prophecy, change her fate, and
find love—even when she learns who is connected to her destruction?

AUTHOR Bio and
Links:

Amy
McKinley is a freelance writer and author. She lives in Illinois with her
husband, their four talented teenagers, and three mischievous cats. Her debut
novel, Hidden is the first in the Five Fates Series.

About Me

HI, my name is Alisia. I enjoy spending time with my family and friends. I like to go to the beach and collect sea glass and sand from different states. I like to go bowling and ice skating (both of which I am not very good at but thats what makes it fun). And I LOVE reading :). I have started getting into watching anime (and love it so far). I also have a twin sister. And I am half way through college!!